Ever since Fourth District Congressman Tom Cotton was elected, there’s been speculation he may run against Senator Mark Pryor in 2014. Cotton hasn’t publicly stated what his definite plans for 2014 are yet, but that doesn’t mean we can’t speculate on who may replace Cotton if he were to run for higher office.

One person considering running for Cotton’s seat, if it were to become open, is State Senator Bruce Maloch (Dem-SD12)

I asked Senator Maloch about a possible run:

“I have visited with different people about that possibility. I am considering that possibility [running for Congress], but right now my focus is on the session and don’t plan to make any decisions until after that. I am considering it, particularly if the seat is vacated.”

That is all Senator Maloch would say at this time, but he is definitely considering running for the seat, if it were to be open.

If Maloch ran, he’d have a politician’s coveted position of “getting a free shot” since Maloch would be in the middle of a 4-year in term and would remain a State Senator if he were to be unsuccessful in his bid.

Maloch is the Chief Operating Officer of Farmers Bank and Trust in Magnolia and holds a law degree from the UALR Law School.

Maloch would make a strong Congressional candidate due to his political geography and his moderate-to-conservative political philosophy. To give you a sense of his popularity in South Arkansas, Republicans could not find anyone to run against him and Maloch won the Senate seat without any opposition in 2012.

For the record, I’ve been a longtime fan of Senator Maloch’s and when I was the executive director of the DPA he was literally the first person I called right after the 2002 election to recruit to run for the State House. He won that seat without opposition too and likely would have run regardless if I called or not.

Maloch is the caliber of candidate Democrats need to have to take back the Fourth District. There may be other quality potential Democratic candidates in the Fourth CD considering the race and if they make their intentions known, I’ll definitely cover it.

Frankly, our 2012 Democratic Congressional candidates in the Fourth CD were a bit of an embarrassment. But maybe in 2014 Democrats could have an embarrassment of riches with numerous strong candidates vying for the seat.